RWE has signed a contract with Jacobs, a professional services firm, to investigate the production and supply of green hydrogen at the Pembroke Power Station site.
The study will take four months to complete, with results expected in March 2022. It will look into the feasibility of first installing a 100 megawatt (MW) electrolyser to generate green hydrogen from local and grid-connected renewable energy. The project, which is linked to floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, has the potential to scale up to several gigawatts (GW) and become one of the UK’s largest green hydrogen plants in development.
Tom Glover, RWE UK Country Chair, said: “As a UK leader in power generation, RWE is perfectly positioned to support the development of the UK hydrogen economy. We are already working with other companies and businesses to help them meet their decarbonisation targets, while supporting Welsh Government achieve its ambitions for Net Zero. Hydrogen will be a game changer in the decarbonisation of heavy industry in South Wales and RWE will be a key partner in helping achieve that.”
The feasibility study will also look into the possibility of supplying green hydrogen in Pembrokeshire for a variety of transportation and decarbonization applications.
Cllr Phil Baker, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure at Pembrokeshire Council said: “Pembrokeshire County Council is pleased to support RWE’s green hydrogen project. The project offers some excellent potential synergies regarding the decarbonisation of transport including buses, and fleet vehicles. The Council is already leading the Milford Haven: Energy Kingdom (MH:EK) project where we are trialling hydrogen cars fuelled from our electrolyser in Milford Waterfront. The MH:EK project also proposes to assess and predict transport hydrogen demand in Pembrokeshire which could be supplied by RWE’s project.”
The knowledge and experience gained from this study will aid in a better understanding of the RWE project’s practicalities and economics, and will serve as a crucial prelude to a funding application to the UK Government’s Net Zero Hydrogen Fund next Spring.
The feasibility study was funded in part by the South Wales Industrial Cluster, a group of major industry, energy, infrastructure, law, academic, and engineering organizations in Wales, of which RWE is a key member. The cluster was successful in obtaining public and private sector support for the development of a number of partner decarbonisation deployment projects for the region.
This is the first project to emerge from RWE’s Pembroke Net Zero Centre (PNZC), which opened earlier this year. The PNZC brings together expertise and knowledge from RWE’s offshore wind, gas-fired generation, and hydrogen businesses to develop decarbonisation solutions in Pembrokeshire.
RWE is at the forefront of green innovation, pledging to invest £15 billion in green energy projects in the United Kingdom by 2030. The company has extensive experience in the development of hydrogen projects throughout Europe, including participation in GET H2, NortH2, and AquaVentus. RWE is committed to assisting in the deployment of this emerging technology while also creating skilled green jobs.
